Accessibility and learning technologies: changing for the better or does plain mean boring

1
Accessibility and learning technologies
changing for the better or does plain mean
boring?

• EPD Internal Research Seminar
• 13 February 2002
• Claire McAvinia

2
Why this topic?

• A current topic for everyone in Higher Education
• Legislative requirements
• EPDs work investigating, enhancing learning and
  teaching
• EPDs work piloting new technologies for
  learning and teaching
• Fascinating(?) for learning technologists,
  researchers and designers

3
Access to what?

• Institutional Websites
• Departmental Websites
• Web-based course materials
• Multimedia resources made available over the web
• Virtual and Managed Learning Environments
• Web-facilitated communication

4
Access for whom?

• Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), 1995
• anyone with a physical or mental impairment ,
• which has a substantial and long-term adverse
• effect upon their ability to carry out normal
• day-to-day activities
• Includes impairments from birth but also changes
  in ability through illness/accidents
• Mental impairments include recognised mental
  illnesses
• Defines substantial, adverse effect and
  day-to-day activities
• 10-20 of the population have some form of
  disability
• (source Digital Media Access Group)

5
Access for whom?

• BECTas list of SEN we might think about
  learners who have
• communication difficulties
• dyslexia
• English as an additional language
• speech and language difficulties
• emotional and behavioural difficulties
• exceptional intelligence
• hearing impairment
• visual impairment
• physical disabilities or mobility problems

6
Access for whom?

• Older people with age-related impairments or
  disabilities
• The number of people aged 60 or over will double
  in Europe in the next 30 years
• We are encouraging our populations to become
  lifelong learners
• We will have an ageing workforce
• They will need access to education and training,
  as well as access to web for day-to-day living

7
Access for whom?

• Focusing on disabilities affecting access to the
  web
• Visual impairment blind or partially sighted
  people
• Dyslexia users have difficulty reading and/or
  entering text to webpages
• Motor disabilities users have difficulties
  operating mouse and need keyboard alternatives
• Cognitive disabilities or impairments affecting
  memory recall, text recognition, comprehension,
  interpretation
• Source Digital Media Access Group

8
Other issues of access

• World Wide Web Consortium adds other access
  issues to the list
• People who may not be able to see, hear, move,
  process some kinds of information easily or at
  all
• People with difficulties reading/comprehending
  text
• People with a text-only screen, slow connection,
  old browser or old PC
• Speakers of languages other than that of the site
  they are visiting

9
Why act now?

• Disability Discrimination Act, 1995
• Special Educational Needs and Disability Act,
  2001
• covers full range of provision and services
• reasonable adjustments active/reactive
• has to be weighed against other factors
• adjustments by 2003, 2005
• Human Rights Act, 1998
• QAA Code of Practice, 2000
• Questions of compliance?

10
Future-proofing

• Emerging legal precedents
• Provision case of validation for medical course
  in the UK
• Web Access Maguire versus Sydney Olympics
  Organising Committee, Australia
• More legislation similar to USA?
• Federal agencies must now purchase accessible ICT
  systems only

11
What is UCL doing?

• We have 378 students with declared disabilities
• Existing college Committee for People with
  Disabilities
• College Disability Co-ordinator, Alistair Appleby
• Departmental Equal Opportunities Liaison Officers
• Key priorities (hit list) to be addressed by
  2003 - relating mainly to campus
• Access Centre is now available to students
• unlikely we will face any legal action on our
  web-based provision yet
• Snapshot assessment undertaken web guidelines
  being drawn up
• Time to make the required adjustments

12
Problems with the web

• Contradiction/conflict of interests
• Adaptability versus House Style
• e.g. sites which enforce browser window size, or
  navigation
• Usability versus Desirability
• e.g. attractive images containing text which is
  not available anywhere else
• Depriving all users of freedom, access in using
  the resource

13
Pressures on the Designer

• To produce an attractive site - perhaps for
  marketing purposes or in education, to motivate
  learners
• To exploit the technologies
• To cope with limitations of HTML
• Creating page layout in HTML is like mowing
• the lawn with a kitchen knife attached to a
  broomstick
• - Lloyd Cole, singer/songwriter

14
Inclusive Design - Issues

• Disability Rights Commission Inclusive Design
  Manual
• (Inclusive Design) has been misunderstood to the
  extent that it was considered impossible to
  achieve. Some manufacturers were wary of the dead
  hand of regulation. Designers feared that their
  creativity would be inhibited. There have also
  been concerns that any requirements for products
  to be designed to meet the needs of a greater
  range of people could strangle innovation. And
  above all, there have been widespread fears about
  what all this will cost, and who would have to
  pay.

15
Inclusive does not mean boring

• Inclusive design does not mean products that are
  dull or utilitarian
• They should chime in to consumers lifestyles
  and aspirations like any other product
• It is about making something usable by as many
  people as possible.
• Technology under development may not be able to
  be accessible by everyone but no reason to
  exclude users with disabilities

16
Inclusive Design Guide

• Equitable usable by people with diverse
  abilities and should appeal to all users
• Flexible should cater for a wide range of
  individual preferences and abilities
• Simple and intuitive use of the design should be
  easy to understand, regardless of the experience,
  knowledge, language skills or current
  concentration level
• Perceptible the design communicates necessary
  information effectively to the user
• Tolerance for error the design minimises hazards
  and the adverse consequences of accidental or
  unintended actions
• Low physical effort can be used efficiently and
  comfortably with a minimum of fatigue
• Gives size and space appropriate for approach,
  reach, manipulation and use regardless of users
  body size, posture or mobility

17
Myths about web design for access

• Digital Media Group echoes the arguments of the
  Inclusive Designers in its Accessible Design
  Myths Exploded
• Accessible sites can have colour pictures and
  multimedia
• One version of a site is enough it just needs
  to be adjustable
• Not a question of catering only to a minority
• It is affordable and inexpensive
• Its good for all users

18
Simple Fixes

• Diagnose problems e.g. Bobby or with W3C
  Accessibility Guidelines
• Monitor basic formatting and design choices
• Stick to standard coding
• Care in use of stylesheets
• Include alternatives to images, multimedia
• Care with frames, tables
• Attention to use of plug-ins and provision of
  alternatives
• Browser testing
• Sample speech browsers

19
Less Simple Fixes

• Good web design for accessibility is easy, and
  not costly, to achieve
• Provision of alternatives, extra support,
  assistance for people with disabilities
• But is it really that simple?
• For web-based learning materials/resources we
  could adopt a participatory design approach
• This would involve consultation with learners
  about what they would find most suitable

20
A Social Issue

• Design is a social issue because
• it is poor design which turns an
• impairment into a disability.
• DRC Inclusive Design Manual
• What does change for accessibility actually
  involve?

21
Learning and Teaching Online

• Support for Learning and Teaching online is
  similar but distinct
• Awareness raising amongst staff
• DMAG Report
• general awareness of disabilities rather low
• general awareness of accessibility issues amongst
  HE lecturers was poor
• Design for learning about more than information
  management
• What about learners needs?

22
Learning and Teaching Online

• Situated learning and communities of practice
  what is the community in this case?
• In considering issues of access are we aligning
  these learners with one community or another?
• What about social and collaborative learning?
• Virtual Learning Environments Access Denied

23
Issues for Research

• Learning Technology encourages consideration of
  technology in terms of pedagogy
• Is this threatened by issues of accessibility?
• How does this affect the motivation of staff?
• Do users disabilities necessitate changes which
  imply that technical concerns over-ride
  pedagogical ones?
• Or do we really need more understanding of these
  learners needs?

24
Implications for our work

• Providing access to our existing systems and
  resources online
• Raising staff awareness
• Aspects of the work
• Making resources technically better, more
  accessible
• Encouraging a cultural shift

25
Benefits

• Practical benefits to improving accessibility to
  online resources
• technical better use of the systems and more
  efficient
• financial more students? (and no costly legal
  cases!)
• Pedagogical benefits
• good design for accessibility is good design
• could increase motivation, help integration

26
Broader Issues for Research

• Do we need to redefine learning technologies?
• Do we need to redefine accessibility?
• What can these learners teach us as teachers,
  researchers, and learning technologists?

27
References and Links

• AbilityNet information on assistive hardware
  and software
• www.abilitynet.co.uk
•  
• BETSIE BBC Education Text to Speech Internet
  Enhancer
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/education/betsie/
•  
• Bobby accessibility assessment for websites
• http//www.cast.org/bobby/
•  
• British Educational Communications and Technology
  Agency (BECTa)
• www.becta.org.uk
•  
• Digital Media Access Group (formerly DisInHE
  Project) at University of Dundee
• http//www.dmag.org.uk/default.asp
•  
• Disability Rights Commission
• http//www.drc.org.uk
• DRC Inclusive Design Manual http//www.drc.org.uk
  /drc/Documents/Inclusive_design.pdf
•  

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References and Links

• JISC Supporting Service TechDis Technology for
  Disabilities Information Service
  http//www.techdis.ac.uk/
•  
• Leeds University Bodington Common an
  accessible VLE they have made available to other
  institutions on an open source basis
• http//www.fldu.leeds.ac.uk/bodingtoncommon.html
•  
• QAA Code of Practice on Students with
  Disabilities http//www.qaa.ac.uk/public/cop/copsw
  d/contents.htm
•  
• Royal National Institute for the Blind
  technology site
• http//www.rnib.org.uk/technology/
•  
• World Wide Web Consortium Web Accessibility
  Initiative
• http//www.w3.org/WAI/Resources
•   
• Sams, L. Yates-Mercer, P. (2002) The web for
  students and staff with disabilities visual
  impairment, dyslexia and motor impairment.
  Digital Media Access Group/DISinHE.
  http//www.dmag.org.uk/resources/casestudies/samsy
  mfull.asp (last accessed 6 February 2002)
•  
• Stiles, M.J. (2001) Disability Access to Virtual
  Learning Environments. Digital Media Access
  Group/DISinHE, http//www.dmag.org.uk/resources/ca
  sestudies/stilesfull.asp (last accessed 6
  February 2002)